This invention relates to a process for the overall manufacturing of layers of pasta and sauces and to other products which can also be manufactured by this process.
The food industry is now called upon to supply an ever-increasing number of ready prepared and frozen dishes.
However, whereas certain products can be produced using a fully automatic manufacturing process, other products, such as those known as "lasagne", can only be produced in sufficient quantities in frozen form at an increasingly high cost of labor which does nothing to improve the quality and presentation of these prestige products, since the speed of handling makes it impossible to guarantee a perfect pack.
In fact the production of frozen pasta-based products and especially of lasagne calls for carefully defined precooking conditions aimed at producing a sheet of pasta which can be cut automatically into small rectangles. In turn, these rectangles are individually layered by hand, once each rectangle has been covered whith sauce by automatic sauce dispensers. Thus containers or rather trays are positioned in front of a series of workers who are responsible for placing the pasta rectangles one on top of the other, once these have been covered with sauce, until the finished lasagne are produced.
Due to the high costs involved in this type of semi-auomatic operation, the tendency has been for manufacturers to simply reduce the number of layers of pasta. In spite of this, productivity remains at a fairly low level in comparison with other industrial-scale products, since output is hampered by this manual layering operation, with workers unable to produce more than 40 lasagne packs per minute.
It is obvious that performance can be improved on a weight basis alone when products are destined for the catering trade and not for home consumption. In this case the sheet of pasta is cut into larger pieces so that the frozen end-product will be larger in size and, once cooled, can be divided into portions before being served.
However, while it is advantageous for the manufacturer to supply products of a satisfactory size which are divided into a certain number of portions, the restauranteur has to take geat care when cutting a good quality product into individual portions. In fact, the sauce between the various layers of pasta are sufficiently fluid so that, under the pressure of a cutting knife, a small amount of sauce flows over the edges of the pasta. This tends to spoil the presentation of the single portions of lasagne served.